As if from nowhere, Toshiba has unveiled a supremely sexy touchscreen mobile phone.
Toshiba_TG01_01
Toshiba's TG01: slim design, 800 x 480 display
The firm’s claimed to have taken all of its TV know-how and crammed it into the TG01’s 4.1in, 800 x 480 touchscreen, resulting in a smartphone that’ll “revolutionise the mobile …

Wot no Android?

I almost got excited and then saw that it's a Windows-based gadget and thus hobbled from the start. If it were Android-based it would have a strong chance of being very desirable indeed and hence a target for my cash. As it is, looks (for me) merely somewhat desirable.

Looks nice...

...but the damned iPhone has single-handedly (phonedly?) homogenized the cell phone market. I'll be buggered if I use a phone without a QWERTY keyboard - I use it for email far too often - but the way things are going, it'll be hard to find a physical keyboard at all in a year or so. I'm going to have to start stockpiling BlackBerry 8700s...

Video of UI has surfaced

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YdmPyZ5a0vo

Oh dear, it's not looking too finger-friendly (or eye friendly for that matter with that colour scheme). Lots of ineffectual stabbing at the screen, small icons, very little eye candy - not good! I can only assume the entire UI is still under development and they're running some sort of early test version that isn't intended for release? Yeah, that would explain it...

lemme at it !

@Neil

You could be on to something there. This could easily have been developed by Toshiba for Microsoft, but be launched as a Tosh for now. I look forward to a re-run of the Zune launch (a rebadged Toshiba Gigabeat). Zunephone can be quickly launched as a rebadged GT01 when MS's "manufacturing partners" can't deliver growth for MS's broken Win Mobile business model.

Re: First Impressions

Judging by the first impression I doubt it'll give the touch HD a run for its money, the saving grace of the touch HD (besides the screen) is the fairly useful and well thought out interface they've come up with, surely the first step for making a touch screen user interface should be making it comfortable to use by touch in which case they may as well have just stuck with the default windows interface.

Much like my first time seeing the G1 that thing looks too polished for it to still be under development but hopefully I'm wrong.

@Neil & sleepy

WM6.5 is very much on the horizon remember... Various prerelase builds are circulating and since I believe it's essentially 6.1 with a pretty face it would make sense to launch this with 6.5 if possible, given the specs and screen size.

Even if WM6.5 isn't as good as say the iPhone UI it will still be a success - if WM can be reasonably popular with its unsuitability for touchscreens (and indeed the 21st Century) then a usable version is bound to be a winner!

At the moment however, using a vanilla WM is an uncanny simulation of trying to use Win9x for day to day tasks after someone's nicked your a mouse.

support, or not?

Hey Toshiba, remember your last foray into the world of mobile media devices, the e830? After a big splash in N. America, you found that sales weren't up to your expectations, and soon afterwards, announced you were leaving the continent and would no longer support those who had purchased your devices... and were beginning to feel in droves the effect of the crappy build quality.

So, have you learned any lessons, or is it more of the same low-quality effort as last time?

Special Delivery!

@Just the Jobs

The iPhone's success is due to its software not the form factor. This is something that the makers of "iPhone killers" don't seem to understand.

No matter how good the hardware or form factor, if the OS blows then it won't be much use. WM at present is a 90s take on what a UI should be. No amount of welcome screen replacements will change that.

Its funny

Toshiba PDAs = FAIL

They're SLOW, often released in a BETA state... I had an e350 which I then upgraded to an e740 only to be told they were being discontinued... and it was a bit like a prototype PDA. Completley unusable and they refused to release the latest Windows Mobile upgrade.

So if you want a decent, high quality phone/PDA which has long-lasting support DON'T get a Toshiba.

Re: IT'S NOT AN IPHONE

37 comments?

37 comments here, all passing verdict on this mobile or indulging in the usual juvenile "I hate the iPlop!" / "Windows suxx!" nonsense. This is based on a *picture* of the handset? With only very brief specification? And no details of the interface, or how it'll work? What a complete joke.

I'm sure this used to be a serious IT website -- now it's just a forum for teenagers and help-desk drones to slag each other off, based on their OS or mobile of choice. Pathetic.

Re: does it make phone calls? Yes!

If *that* is your only criterion, then you aren't in the market for something with a 800 by 480 pixel colour touch screen, are you? If they want to charge more than a fiver for it, it *has* to be much more than just a phone, so the choice of OS is going to be pretty important.

Count me in for Android, out for WM

The hardware looks fantastic, but WM6 needs much more than a little make up to make it palatable. I have an HTC Touch, and it can fool you at most for a very few seconds before you realize that Windows CE is just there, almost unchanged for YEARS, with the same bugs and defects it had ten years ago.

As for how many iPhone killers we need before we go to iPhone, well, it is an intelligent comment. However, I don't want to go for iPhone as long as Apple censors contents (iBoobs out, iFart in nonsense), censors functionality in apps, disallows virtual machines, disallows Flash, disallows alternative music shops, disallows alternative software shops, disallows alternative media players, limits communications with your own PC, has no bluetooth stereo profile, has no good support for SMS/MMS, has no multitasking, has a shitty camera with no video, has no cut and paste, has no memory card reader,...

With the other platforms these limitations are either not there, or may mostly be lifted by installing additional software, but the iPhone is Limited by Design (TM).

Actually I've owned 2 iphones

And I'd never go back any more. Due to the insane 18 month contracts they force you into I'll be paying for my current one until next year, though, even though it'll be in a box somewhere.

sorry, but the iphone aint all that any more.. apple have consistently failed to address the failings that were pointed out to it right at the start of the release of the iphone 2G, missed the opportunity with the iphone 3G, and still show no signs of doing so. In the meantime other manufacturers *have* been listening and have produced some very nice phones. My current phone has a higher resolution screen, video recording, better camera, supports flash, MMS, copy and paste, streaming TV, both Java and Native apps, Tethering.... and cost *considerably* less than the iphone.

pavlovian response to WM

sorry - after three Windows Mobile devices over the last 6 years I now feel physically sick when I see that windows logo. all that time I felt like an abused spouse - 'No it's going to change, it just needs more time...'